Three Weeks, Two Marathons, One Chronic Illness

Race Report: Dayton River Corridor Classic

Well, today was the big day. Victoria and I ran the Dayton River Corridor Classic in Dayton, OH. It was a good race, well organized, and a nice flat course.

We arrived early, at 7:30. The race didn’t start until 9:00. We got our packets, exchanged our shirts (they ran REALLY big), and hung out in the car. Wayne arrived around 8:00, and we took a few minutes to say Hi, etc. Wayne went to warm up, while we just kind of hung out on the track.

The race started promptly at 9:00 and I crossed the start line 17 seconds later. So, I started my Garmin at 9:00:17. Our plan was to run the first mile slow, at around a 10:15 or so. That quickly went out the window. The first mile went by at a 9:26. Our goal was a 2:05 for the Half Marathon. That would be about a 9:33 mile pace.

The first 5 miles went fairly easily. We saw the winners coming back at mile 4.5, and saw Wayne at about 5.5 or so. He looked good, and we kicked it up a little after we saw him. I took two salt capsules after the mile 5 water station. Big mistake! It really made me nauseous. I just concentrated on cheering on the returning runners, which helped my keep from loosing my lunch.

I started to feel tired at about mile 6, but got back into a rhythm by mile 6.5. We hit half way at 1:01 and change. We took in some sport beans around mile 9.5, which took me forever. I couldn’t open the stupid bag. Victoria was really feeling bad by about mile 10, and I pushed her through 10.75. At that point, she hit the wall and told me to go ahead. I found a lady having issues keeping motivated at about 11.85 (1.25 miles to go). I told her we could finish strong and kept pace with her. The last mile was tough, but we pushed through for a strong finish. I lost her on the back straight away of the track, which is where we finished. My time was 2:06.37 when I crossed the finish, minus the 17 seconds. Official time: 2:06.20. I was very happy and a PR by 5 minutes.

My HR goal was between 160 and 165, but it was more like 170 – 175 most of the way. Victoria finished about 3 minutes behind me, still a 7 minute PR. Wayne ran a 1:41 and won his age group. I was disappointed that I was third from the last in my age group, but there weren’t too many in it, maybe 25 or 30. I’ve posted my splits below.